Building the Altar of Burnt Offering

38 Next Bezalel^[a] used acacia wood to construct the square altar of burnt offering. It was 7 1⁄2 feet wide, 7 1⁄2 feet long, and 4 1⁄2 feet high.^[b]

Plans for the Altar of Burnt Offering

27 “Using acacia wood, construct a square altar 7 1⁄2 feet wide, 7 1⁄2 feet long, and 4 1⁄2 feet high.^{[a] 2} Make horns for each of its four corners so that the horns and altar are all one piece. Overlay the altar with bronze. ³ Make ash buckets, shovels, basins, meat forks, and firepans, all of bronze. ⁴ Make a bronze grating for it, and attach four bronze rings at its four corners. ⁵ Install the grating halfway down the side of the altar, under the ledge. ⁶ For carrying the altar, make poles from acacia wood, and overlay them with bronze. ⁷ Insert the poles through the rings on the two sides of the altar. ⁸ The altar must be hollow, made from planks. Build it just as you were shown on the mountain.

¹⁶ When he measured it, he found it was a square, as wide as it was long. In fact, its length and width and height were each 1,400 miles.^[a]

¹⁰ We have an altar from which the priests in the Tabernacle^[a] have no right to eat.

The Altar

¹³ “These are the measurements of the altar^[a]: There is a gutter all around the altar 21 inches deep and 21 inches wide,^[b] with a curb 9 inches^[c] wide around its edge. And this is the height^[d] of the altar: ¹⁴ From the gutter the altar rises 3 1⁄2 feet^[e] to a lower ledge that surrounds the altar and is 21 inches^[f] wide. From the lower ledge the altar rises 7 feet^[g] to the upper ledge that is also 21 inches wide. ¹⁵ The top of the altar, the hearth, rises another 7 feet higher, with a horn rising up from each of the four corners. ¹⁶ The top of the altar is square, measuring 21 feet by 21 feet.^{[h] 17} The upper ledge also forms a square, measuring 24 1⁄2 feet by 24 1⁄2 feet,^[i] with a 21-inch gutter and a 10 1⁄2-inch curb^[j] all around the edge. There are steps going up the east side of the altar.”

Furnishings for the Temple

4 Solomon^[a] also made a bronze altar 30 feet long, 30 feet wide, and 15 feet high.^[b]

²⁹ and he placed the altar of burnt offering near the Tabernacle entrance. On it he offered a burnt offering and a grain offering, just as the Lord had commanded him.

⁶ Place the altar of burnt offering in front of the Tabernacle entrance.

⁵ And you are living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple. What’s more, you are his holy priests.^[a] Through the mediation of Jesus Christ, you offer spiritual sacrifices that please God.